Sounds like it could be a yeast infection. My Kaiser had that so bad! He ended up getting an aural hematoma and now one of his ears is sort of shriveled up. I did a lot of reading up on causes, etc. and ended up changing their food and giving them probiotics from Nature's Farmacy. Here is a good art...

Welcome to you Kris, and your BIG family!! I think you will find a lot of help here for Damien as there are other people with the same issues with their dogs. There should be quite a few threads in the Behavior and Training section that will help. Bless your heart for being such a go-getter and anim...